fear, when he had been made aware of the extent of his injuries, was that he’d be unable to provide for his wife, Betty, and he knew she had been frightened of that too. It was even more important now that she was expecting their first child. It always gave him pride when he placed his wage packet into her hand on a Friday night and saw that special smile on her face. He would go to hell and back in order that she and the child would not go short.
Collingsworth paid well, Will had to admit, though sometimes he demanded more than his pound of flesh and his Betty would kick up about it though he never discussed his work with her. He knew she would disapprove of most of it, and if she just had a hint of some of the things he had seen done, the things he had been asked to cover up, or provide an alibi for, she would probably demand he give it up. And just where would they be then? Up the creek without a paddle, that’s where. Anyway, it was far better for Betty, and much safer for her, to know nothing and to think he had a regular sort of job.
Ray was surprised to hear that Collingsworth had returned home before the morning, for it wasn’t even midnight, but ask as he might, Will said he knew nothing about anything. All he knew was that he was told to fetch him and that was what he was doing. Ray knew he was lying, though he didn’t blame him because it was always safer for a person to keep their head down. He had seen Collingsworth in a temper and it was a frightening spectacle.
In Will’s absence, Collingsworth had called his doctor, who had come round immediately, shaved the hair around the head wound and then cleaned and stitched it so that the first thing that Ray noticed was the large white bandage encircling the man’s head.
‘Good God, Edwin! What happened to you?’
‘You might well ask, and the answer is being fool enough to be left in with that she-devil.’
Ray’s mouth dropped agape. ‘Molly?’ he said incredulously. ‘Molly did that to you?’
‘What do you think?’ Collingsworth spat out.
‘But how? I mean, there is nothing to her.’
‘That is neither here nor there,’ Collingsworth snapped. ‘You said she would be ready and waiting, that she knew the score.’
‘She did,’ Ray said. ‘I mean, I told her she had to be nice to you, very nice, and I asked her if she knew what I meant and she said that of course she did.’
Surely, Ray thought suddenly, she wasn’t so naive as to think that being ‘nice’ was offering him a cup of tea and a biscuit or two?
‘Oh, she was nice all right,’ Collingsworth snapped. ‘So nice that not content with knocking me out, she pushed me down the bleeding stairs.’ He went on to recount to Ray what had happened in the apartment. ‘She bloody near killed me,’ he said at the end. ‘She might have succeeded if Will hadn’t found me and brought me home, and I want to know what you are going to do about it.’
‘What do you want me to do?’ Ray demanded. ‘I’ll have a word, put her straight, give her a good hiding if you like, so she will remember.’
‘I have done that already,’ Collingsworth said. ‘And that is not good enough. No one gets away with doing this to me. And I want every penny back from the money I paid you this evening.’
‘I haven’t got it,’ Ray said. ‘I mean, not all of it. I spent some at the casino. I had a bit of bad luck.’
‘That is not my problem.’
‘You have to give me time.’
‘I have to give you nothing,’ Collingsworth snarled.
‘I was going to sell Molly on to Vera,’ Ray said. ‘I would have some cash then all right.’
‘Well, now you will have to think of another way to earn enough to pay me back,’ Collingsworth said. ‘And remember, I am not a patient man.’
‘I can’t pay you what I haven’t got.’
‘You are not listening to me, Morris, and I don’t like that,’ Collingsworth snarled. ‘You pay me what you owe or I turn you over to my heavies and then you will be lucky if you ever work again.’
He let this sink in, then went on, ‘There is a way around this, because if you kill the girl, and in a way that can never be traced back to me, the debt will be cancelled.’
Ray gasped. Outside the door, Will, who was eavesdropping, felt his blood turn to ice.
‘I haven’t ever killed anyone, Edwin, never,’ Ray said. ‘Or even come anywhere near it.’
‘So?’
‘What if I make a mess of it?’
‘Then I suggest that you get on a slow boat to China,’ Collingsworth said with a sardonic smile. ‘Because wherever you try running to, I will seek you out and hunt you down, and make you wish that you had never been born. I do hope that I have made myself clear?’
Will melted away from the door as Ray opened it. He went out into the street, his senses reeling. He could barely believe that he had just heard two men discussing killing a young girl with so little feeling. He had never listened in to what went on behind Collingsworth’s door before, preferring to keep well out of the man’s business, and he wished to God he hadn’t listened that day either, but finding his boss the way he had had made him curious.
And now he had heard they intended to kill a young girl and in cold blood for the simple reason that she had objected to Collingsworth shagging her. He could hardly blame her, for the man had surely been at the back of the queue when good looks were dished out. He was also a nasty piece of work and likely old enough to be her grandfather. No wonder the poor girl had fought like a tiger. The whole thing was obscene, grotesque.
All the way back to the flat, Ray was raging. He wanted to tear Molly limb from limb. Over three weeks he had kept her and fed her and cared for her, waiting for Collingsworth to return from wherever he had been, knowing he would pay well for a virgin. And then when Collingsworth had taken his pleasure, Ray would sell the girl on to Vera and pick up a wad of money to keep him until the next girl chanced along.
All he had asked Molly to do was toe the line, to repay the way he had looked after her so well, but she had screwed up every bloody thing. And yet the thought of what he had to do to prevent Collingsworth’s heavies reducing him to pulp frightened the life out of him. He wasn’t averse to giving a girl a good hiding if she stepped out of line, but killing – that was a different league altogether and not one he was keen on joining either.
Christ, whatever way you looked at it, it was a bloody mess and it was all Molly’s fault.
Molly felt a flood of relief when she heard Ray come in, confident that he would know what to do. She looked up as he entered the kitchen and watched him survey her face. Molly had never seen such a look in Ray’s eyes before, though she recognised that it was not sympathy or pity for the mess Collingsworth had made of her. Even so, she was unprepared for what he said.
‘Well, I just hope that you are bloody proud of yourself.’
Molly was totally confused. ‘Ray, I …’
Ray dragged her to her feet by the neck of her nightdress, and with his face inches from hers, he ground out, ‘I told
